GUERRILLA STRUGGLE CAPTURED THE IMAGINATION OF JUDGE FIKELE BAM

TRIBUTE BY PARTY LEADER GANIEF HENDRICKS
Our deepest condolences to the family, friends and comrades of the late Judge Fikele Bam. At the funeral of his friend Dr Archie(Abdulla) Mafeje at the Walter Sisulu University he remembered his days in District 6 when he was introduced to crayfish curry and got regular clean shirts while he was locked up in Caledon Square. I walked from Dry Docks to the jail a few days a week taking him one of Dr Archie’s shirts. Now Judge Motala was worried about the books he lent the learned student after his arrest. Fikele as we knew him spent hundreds of days in our house and was a like a house child. Dr Mafeje was mistaken for him and nearly arrested for guerilla activities. According to my mother Fikele was eventually arrested and charged for having what she thought was a Klu Klux Clan pamphlet but it was more likely a flyer of the Yu Chi Chan Club that inspired Mao Tsa Tung’s guerrilla warfare in several countries that needed to be liberated from oppression including South Africa. So guerilla struggle may have had its roots in District 6. Fikele spent 11 years on Robben Island but his guerrilla ideas spread throughout the country and gaved impetus to the armed struggle.

Denied membership of the Bar he eventually took the position of Judge President of the Land Claims Court.